Talk:Flanagan Island

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Caribbean: British Virgin Islands / U.S. Virgin Islands Low‑importance

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disputed border?[edit]

I could find nothing on the Internet to support the article's assertion that both the U.S. and the BVI claim this island. The World Factbook does not include it in its list of the U.S.' border disputes. --A. B. ^{(talk • contribs)} 23:16, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try and dig something up. It is not like there was ever a war over them, but each side always claim that the island belongs to them - Wikimaps seems to have "awarded" it to the BVI (yay!),[1] but if you look at other online maps they regard it as USVI territory.[2][3] Physical maps produced in the two different territories follow the party line in each territory. If I can't do anything better I will try and find a couple of physical government maps and scan them in. I think it all dates from the annexation of St John by the Danes in 1718 (see generally: History_of_the_BVI#Geographical_limits_of_the_Territory). But I'll try and source the statement.--Legis (talk - contribs) 17:17, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Still looking into this - I got hold of the first official survey of the British Virgin Islands conducted by Thomas Jeffreys (Geographer to the King) on 20 February 1775, and he ascribes the island as a Danish territory (which would make it part of the modern USVI). But saldy, he also indicates that Great Thatch, Little Thatch, Great Tobago and Little Tobago are all Danish possessions, and they were at the time (and have always been since, without dispute) British possessions. So I am not sure if that takes us further forwards or not... --Legis (talk - contribs) 16:18, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The "Eastern St. John Quardrangle" 7.5 minute series topoquad map by the U.S. Geological Survey (1958, photorevised 1982) shows the border halfway between Flanagan (U.S.) and Pelican Island (British) -- actually not quite halfway, probably because of "The Indians" which are not shown on the map. I have access to a paper copy, but not an on-line one. I found no detailed official looking British gov't map, but this map [4] (although stylized) does not seem to show Flanagan as being BVI territory. As for the "national park" comment, Flanagan is definately not within the boundaries of Virgin Islands National Park. — Eoghanacht ^talk 20:13, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think the U.S. vs British argument has now been definitively resolved (although it looks like Google Earth still has it wrong!) - it belongs to the Yanks. Funnily enough, I checked this at the BVI Land Registry the other day, which confirmed that it does not register titles for Flanagan. Bu I could not think of a way to "cite" that as a source! Anyhow, glad it got resolved, and better yet somebody produced a reliable 3rd party source to resolve it. --Legis (talk - contribs) 20:39, 14 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]